A couple of weeks ago, I went to update my VPS. Usually, I do this once a week, sometimes more frequently depending on any security news I see. I should probably have the AI agents I use do this, but I do it myself for now. I find infrastructure interesting and “boring” in a good way most of the time.
While updating one of my VPSes, I got a message saying I needed to pay for access to Caddy because the repository had reached its bandwidth limit. This was from a company called Cloudsmith. I wasn't the only one getting this message, either. There was already a large discussion going on over at Caddy's GitHub.
Back in August, I got a Tempest Weather Station. I had been wanting a weather station for some time.
Why? Well, that is hard to put into words. I guess the answer is that I really like technology, I am fascinated with self-hosting as much as possible, and I like collecting data and contributing data to something larger without having to pay a subscription.
Anyway, I got this Tempest Weather Station for a great price during Prime Day. I put it up and integrated it into a Python weather program, while also using Tempest's own software.
But there was something I didn't know, and probably should have checked. It wouldn't have changed my mind, but there are hundreds of these things around me.
Today, I leveraged my single Mastodon instance, my Raspberry Pi, and my paid Claude AI account to create an automated weather posting system for my home location. Using Claude AI, I generated code to automatically post weather updates and other information—tasks I previously relied on IFTTT for. It was an interesting project, and I plan to extend it further with additional automated posts.
I can see IFTTT and Zapier either having to step up their game or eventually fading away. AI is a game-changer for those of us who aren't coders. While I’m sure the code isn’t the most optimized (Claude AI is supposedly the best at code generation right now), it’s incredible how AI allows regular people like me to experiment and bring my ideas to life.
This is how I envision AI—not as a replacement, but as a helper and a great equalizer. I know this technology will inevitably change lives (not necessarily for the better) and eliminate some jobs, but it’s also making powerful tools and knowledge more accessible to the masses.
I noticed a couple of days ago that DSLreports.com stopped working. I thought maybe they were doing some maintenance or having a problem. After a couple of days of trying and doing a little research, and admittedly finding no firm answer, the consensus is that it is offline and has shut down permanently. It shut down unceremoniously and without warning. That site was a great resource for finding savings with your ISP and checking if you were the only one experiencing service problems. It will be missed, and I’m not sure if anyone could step in, though I hope so.
This seems to be a trend happening more and more. The things I use are either dying off or being taken over by billionaires who turn megalomaniac. That is why I am turning more and more to self-hosted or managed hosting for some services that I feel are better suited for frequent upgrades and the ability to handle traffic.
I’ve been trying to become more self-sufficient with technology lately. I’ve recently started dabbling with setting up a Raspberry Pi and self-hosting different services. I began with Pi-Hole because I’m just tired of all the ads. While this hasn’t eliminated all of them, it’s removed about 80 percent, which is a big improvement.
I’m also moving away from shared hosting (once my contract ends) because of the WordPress kerfuffle, the high pricing of my shared hosting, and WordPress nickel-and-diming for every little add-on. On top of that, I’ve grown frustrated with how complicated WordPress has become. I believe I’ve found the perfect solution, but all of this comes at a cost. I’m definitely stretching my comfort zone with technology and encountering new challenges along the way.
One challenge I’ve encountered is that most of the best blogging tools are only available for macOS, iOS, or iPadOS. Since I use Windows and Android, I often feel left out in the cold. Writing once and then publishing everywhere I want to is not as simple as it should be. I often find myself either cutting and pasting or using awkward workarounds.
But there was something I didn't know, and probably should have checked. It wouldn't have changed my mind, but there are hundreds of these things around me.
